A heartbroken family have said a new report has left them without answers over whether a pregnancy test drug used in the 1960s and 70s caused deformities in babies - despite campaigning for the last 44 years.

An expert working group set up by the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) concluded on Wednesday (November, 15) that there was no “causal association” between a drug called Primodos and severe disabilities in babies.

The review has been severely criticised by campaigners across the country including a couple from Nottinghamshire who have said that “they will never stop fighting for answers.”

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Robert and Jill Coulling’s daughter was born, on November 10, 1973, with her brain on the outside of her head.

The couple who lived in Radford Bridge Road, in Wollaton, at the time, allege the pregnancy test drug Primodos, which a GP gave Jill to determine whether she was pregnant, led to Joanna’s deformity.

At just a few hours old, Joanna underwent an emergency operation at Nottingham Women’s Hospital, in Peel Street, and was cut from one ear to the other before her brain was relocated and attached to her spinal cord.

Jill and Robert, now 64, have been seeking answers ever since.

Jill Coulling said she will carry on fighting for answers

The couple, along with other families, took their case to the Royal Courts of Justice in 1982, and a judge said it could not be proven if there was a causal link, but added that if new information came to light, the cases may be reopened.

In March this year a documentary which aired on Sky news shone new light onto the case.

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She said: “We have waited so long for answers and the report has brought it all back again. Since Wednesday we have been drained but we have just got to keep fighting.

“We haven’t been spoken to throughout this process. How can they decide something without even speaking to those affected?

“We waited two years for the outcome of this report and now all the families just like us are absolutely horrified. We were all in tears. We are all still left waiting for answers.”

After being born, Joanna spent around two months in hospital; she was sent for physiotherapy at Nottingham City Hospital as soon as she was able to sit up. She was not expected to be able to walk or talk, but stunned her family and medics when she started to walk aged five.

Jill Coulling is campaigning on the drug Primados

Now 44, Joanna, who attended Shepherd School, Beechdale, relies on her mother to get dressed and cannot go out on her own.

The family are now appealing for parents to look back through their medical notes to see if they had been prescribed the same drug.

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Mrs Coulling said: "We need to keep raising awareness about this drug, we believe there needs to be a full inquiry right from the beginning.”

Dr June Raine, director of vigilance and risk management of medicines at the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, the group which gathered evidence for the report, said the report cannot take away from the real suffering experienced by families.

She said: "While the publication of this report cannot take away from the very real suffering experienced by these families, it helps shape the path to further strengthen existing regulatory systems relating to medicines used in pregnancy.

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"Our focus now will be how best to take forward these recommendations and to make sure, working closely and collaboratively with professional bodies, health system organisations and the 'Association of Children Damaged by Hormone Pregnancy Tests', that they are appropriately implemented.”

A spokesman for Bayer, which acquired Primodos manufacturer Schering in 2006, said: “Bayer notes that a review by an independent Expert Working Group on Hormone Pregnancy Tests of the Commission on Human Medicines has found, consistent with Bayer’s view, based on all available data, that the scientific evidence does not support a causal association between the use of hormone pregnancy tests, such as Primodos, and birth defects or miscarriage.”